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Upzoning Sought And Supported On W 7th Street

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Looks like an upzoning request for a half-block of W 7th Street wedged between West 6th Street and Original Austin was semi-successful.

701 and 711 W 7th Street in downtown Austin were seeking an upzoning to CBD.   701 W 7th is zoned “GR – general retail” and 711 W 7th is zoned “GO – general office”.  Both zoning definitions cap building height at 60 feet.

According to InFactDaily, the City of Austin Planning Commission denied the applicant’s request for CBD zoning, and went with OANA’s recommendation for DMU-CURE, including: 1) capping the height oat 375ft, 2) the requirement that any project is mixed-use, and 3) 50% of the use to be residential.

Many members of OANA [that I’ve worked with] see the importance of high-density residential use in the urban core, and see it as a complement to the historical character of the adjacent neighborhood.  It’s a nice dose of reasonableness, IMO.

Below, I’ve created a quick model to show the massing without CVC encumbrance.  The perspective is to the south and the building height is 375ft.

W 7th Street downtown austin tower

Below, is another rendering to show how the CVC could impact the massing of the developed site.
W 7th Street downtown austin high rise, capital view corridor

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Comments

  1. Jude,
    Do you know who’s developing the Starwood hotel? Is there an architect working on it?

  2. Very interesting, Jude. If they build to max height, it’ll be slightly smaller than Ashton (which is 412 ft). However, being half a block I don’t think they can have Ashton’s scale. Also looking at the Cap. views corridor it seems they’ll have to build in the eastern part of the half block.

    And I can tell you from looking out my window, that’ll block Spring’s view of the Capital. 🙂

    Any ideas who the developers are?

    • The principals are Daryl Kunik and Matt Luckie, represented by Ron Thrower.

      Just updated the post with a rough massing of the site if built to 375ft. You can also see how the CVC might cut through.

      • Wow, very nice renderings. I guess Luckie is stepping up his game the nightclub business. If I’m not mistaken I believe this is the site of the rumored W. Austin boutique hotel that has come and gone over the last 4 years.